McKillop's Bridge - Snowy River NP

[El_Freddo]

G'day all,

So, I've been on a "little" trip. Learnt a few things on this one!

I had a number of hurdles to over come in the lead up to this trip - I should have listened to them! I got around them all though, it did cost the first day of the trip but after packing we got on the road at 3pm Saturday.

We headed up and over Mt Hotham, we caught up with the cool front we experienced back at home:



We then missed every servo in the little towns along the way, so had to head into Bairnsdale to fuel up. At $1.329 per L I wasn't complaining! Then we kept driving towards McKillops Bridge... and kept driving and driving... and driving!

We arrived at the campground at 11:30pm. No sign of our party we were convoying with whom also said that they'd be there. So we camped alone.

In the morning we considered 4wd'n our way back towards home - but with no mobile reception I wasn't really keen on that until we were on tracks I knew (over Dargo way). But our party rocked up - we missed their sign they put up for us the night before!

So off to the infamous McKillop's Bridge. Awesome thing. Why anyone would build a bridge out here I don't know but it's pretty amazing! Especially to think that flood waters have been over the bridge at least twice!







After a bit of time contemplating the sheer volume of water required to top this bridge we headed off to the Deddick track. The vehicles - "Big Russ", a 60 series Landcruiser that's got 2 inch lift and double lockers; and a lateish model patrol with 2 inch lift, chipped, double lockers and auto. And of course Ruby Scoo - the light weight of the mob.

The Deddick track was a good one with the start of the track promising a good offering of some decent 4wd'n with steep inclines and rocky sections as well.





This track had a bit of everything. This scenery was captured on the top of a ridge line where there was a bit of a dip in the landscape like a bowl:



Later meeting up in a saddle in the track:




.

[El_Freddo]

The climb out of the saddle:



We had a bit of a rally section up over the top of a hill then hit some whoops/spoon drains across the track. Slow over these then let it rip on the flat stuff before climbing again. Good fun!





Good fun until your gearbox starts making mechanical tapping/knocking noises. Initially I thought I'd slipped out of low range which can happen with a lot of drive train movement - I've only ever experienced it on the really steep stuff where the vehicle is working hard with all wheels loaded up.

I then thought it was engine related but we ruled that out pretty quickly. With the use of my extension in the socket set we could listen to the gearbox and found the noise not to be up at the low range gears, but further down along the gearbox. A quick test and "pang!" yep, second gear it is.

We continued down the hill to the river, had lunch then tied onto the Patrol and began the tow. We were about 40k's in, with 40k's to Orbost. So we got to see quite a bit of this:



There was one section that's called the stair case. We got up two whoops before the Patrol towing us lost traction. It was impressive to see this machine able to dig 4 holes on such an incline. We tried run ups - one that lifted Ruby's front end clean off the ground as we were reversed up on a whoop.

In the end we tied the Patrol to the 60 and gave that a go - at times it still wasn't enough so I used first gear that seemed to work alright. At a break in the climbing Mrs El_Freddo got bored and took this pic of a grass tree, we started to see more in this area.



Another steep rocky section and we got there in the end and that was the main thing!

Then we saw more of this:



And more of this:



Eventually we got to one of the main roads - the type that's been setup for logging trucks. Again we stopped for a break to discuss where we'd camp for the night, I grabbed a few snaps while we were there:




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[El_Freddo]

And once again, more of this:



It was a bit of fun, lots of dust and when the snatch strap dragged from being too slack it flicked up plenty of rocks - found them everywhere once in camp! Before we made it to camp we got this snap of us being towed, a bit more interesting that the last ones I reckon:



We camped beside a river, don't know the name but apparently there were not fish in it, Bros and Richie reckon it was because of the chemicals used to protect bridges and other bits of infrastructure in the area.

We drained the oil again to see if we could get anymore bits out. We drained it straight after it happened but got nothing - it was a wasted exercise but I didn't know what else to do. This time around we could see more metals particles and got some shavings out as well. No teeth.

On the Monday we were towed up the hill out of camp and drove in 3rd for about 10km with some interesting noises occurring - these went quiet after a while. Where we came unstuck was when we stopped to wait for the others to catch up. We had managed all the inclines and at times had slipped effortlessly into high range and back again as needed.



While waiting I wanted to know if I could get first gear if needed - got it stuck in gear, got it out. The others rocked up so we headed off with more noise than ever before. 1km later and I pulled up requesting a tow - then decided to see what it sounded like again in 1st gear where all 4 wheels locked up. Lucky we were at walking pace!

So we got a trailer for Orbost - 30km away. But at $125 for 4 hours there was no way we were towing back to Hotham, plus the Patrol was headed for Melbs anyway. We made some calls, got onto a place that had a yard and for $20 we were good for the week. But this left me with a 3 hour window on Saturday morning to pick up Ruby Scoo, starting at 8am!

We managed to jam our important luggage into the 60 and have a crammed ride up to Hotham where we crashed for the night. It was interesting to view a snowless Hotham area!



It was great to hang out with my Brother (Chopsy!) for the weekend and crash at his place at Hotham. Even better was that he had stolen Mum's car since M&D were overseas. This allowed myself and Mrs El_Freddo to get off the mountain and back home without taking my brother and his SCAT out of their way.

But this isn't the end of the saga. I still had to get Ruby Scoo home and curiosity was killing the cat with what exactly was wrong with the gearbox. For the rest of the week it's basically all I could think of in my spare time. I booked a tandem trailer, picked it up at 4:30pm Friday, went home, ate, packed supplies and sleeping gear then headed off for Orbost via Melbourne rather than over the Mt.

I had a really good run without getting fatigued, arrived in Orbost at 1am and camped in the car in a park across from the place that looked after Ruby Scoo for me. I must admit I was nervous about Ruby being left with people I know nothing of for the week but all was good.

At 8am I rolled in picked up Ruby Scoo on the trailer, had a yarn with the owner of the place then rolled through town grabbing these snaps as I knew I couldn't get them again (and it would eat me from the inside!):

The Orbost tyre joint that looked after Ruby Scoo in their yard:



The local pub - got this pic for a mate:



After stopping off in Bairnsdale to meet a mate and grab some cheap fuel I headed off, had breakfast in Sale then pretty much had a straight run to Lancefield:



Got Ruby home, wanted to pull the box but then found out my sister was stuck in Bendigo with Redback. Nothing I told her over the phone worked, so I legged it up there as well, just to add a few more k's on the VT.

Redback ended up being a dead ignition module issue. Time for a new one off the shelf rather than a parts car one...


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[El_Freddo]

We got the gearbox out of Ruby Scoo, then stripped it down and found this (as already mentioned in "what did you do to your subi today" and my build thread of Ruby Scoo):





Overall this trip was still a good one. I've now got another area to explore, although it's quite a distance from home! I learnt a few things in terms of relying on a mate - when he says it's close it's because he knows the shortcuts, and if you miss the convoy meet time you miss the short cuts as well...

The gearbox thing was just waiting to happen. I remember saying to Mrs El_Freddo that the synchro on second was on the way out as I was needing to rev match just to select second with the clutch...

Now the repairs begin...

Oh, and being towed offroad for that sort of distance is NOT FUN!

Cheers

Bennie

[yarney]

Bugger Bennie i can feel your pain
We camped at McKillops bridge before we met you, we where planing on going on Deddick track but there was a large tree down so we couldn't get through
Jan

[El_Freddo]

Yarney, You of all people would know the pain of busting a gearbox!

Bugger about the tree. We had a clean run on the Deddick Tk, someone had put in some serious time on the chainsaw before us though!

Shame you didn't get to do it - this track really did have a bit of everything!

Cheers

Bennie

[yarney]

I forgot to mention the road down to the bridge how narrow was it and did you go down little river track about a quarter of the way down that was a good track to the river we were in total fog

[El_Freddo]

I forgot to mention the road down to the bridge how narrow was it and did you go down little river track about a quarter of the way down that was a good track to the river we were in total fog

Nah we didn't do little river track - apparently there's a camp area down there and this is where our mates were camped on the first night where we missed the sign.

From another forum, this is something to look out for and check out next time we're out there:



"The Washington Winch"

Keen to check out this area more next time!

Cheers

Bennie

[timmo]

Hey Bennie the washington is only about 45 mins or so from swifts creek, check out moscow villa while your up there

[El_Freddo]

Hey Bennie the washington is only about 45 mins or so from swifts creek, check out moscow villa while your up there

Will do mate! Just need to get the car back together and work out a time to get back out there again...

Cheers

Bennie

[RSR 555]

sad to see this about the box Bennie but hopefully you'll get it sorted soon.. if you stop buying cars

[El_Freddo]

sad to see this about the box Bennie but hopefully you'll get it sorted soon.. if you stop buying cars

Yeah it's one hurdle after another with this build!

Gearbox is now back in the shed after spending a month in the trailer - I had the best intensions of working on this over the holidays. It never made it out of the trailer

Now it's in the shed I hope to find some time to start moving everything back into the SG cases. Hopefully it'll be a quick process but I have my concerns about three areas: the low range idler gear's shaft distance from the input shaft - hopefully it hasn't changed; the diff bearing carriers that will be used from the phase 1 gearbox and that input shaft bearing - I don't really want to be making up bushes etc... but if push comes to shove it's just another thing to organise and most likely pay for

Can't wait to hear her fire up again - or to take her for a drive offroad!

Cheers

Bennie